Tata Elxsi: Ultimately, there s a company with the courage to test driverless cars on Indian roads

Ultimately, there’s a company with the courage to test driverless cars on Indian roads

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It`s one thing attempting to build driverless cars, and entirely another to make them work in Indian conditions.

With unruly pedestrians, disorderly drivers, reckless autorickshaws, a multitude of slow-moving carts, darting dogs, and the occasional elephant, Indian roads are truly something else. But there`s one company that evidently has the audacity to test driverless cars in India.

Tata Elxsi, a design rigid part of the Tata group, is presently seeking permission from authorities in Bengaluru to road test an autonomous car, the Business Standard newspaper (paywall) has reported. Unlike some autonomous car companies, Tata Elxsi isn`t building a driverless car from scrape. Instead, it has repurposed two sedans, including one manufactured by Tata Motors, and rigged them up with a range of sensors and cameras. The kitted out cars are already being given a runaround at a facility on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

Quartz has reached out to Tata Elxsi for more details on the project, and will update this post if and when we hear back.

Tata Elxsi has been working on autonomous technology for some time now. In 2014, for example, a group of engineers from the company modified a Tata Motors Zest sedan and tested it on a pre-determined route. «We knew the car`s electronics architecture (inwards out). We made it autonomous and took it to Pune, and demonstrated it to Tata Motors,» Tata Elxsi`s managing director, Madhukar Dev, told Fortune magazine last year. «About one hundred technical staff took a rail in it along a programmed path.» In 2015, the company also demonstrated the autonomous valet parking technology developed by it at the CES, the world`s largest consumer technology trade display.

The objective is to build an autonomous car framework that combines cameras, sensors, and communications inbetween vehicles and infrastructure, which could then be suggested to the automotive industry. «What we`re developing will be useful in many ways for OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and suppliers of parts,» Tata Elxsi`s head of marketing Nitin Pai told Business Standard.

But there have been persistent doubts over the feasibility of autonomous cars on Indian roads. Last year, Steffen Berns, president and managing director of engineering and electronics hard Bosch India, politely explained that the autonomous cars will take some time to come to the subcontinent «because the traffic situation is a bit different here.»

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was somewhat more direct: «India will be the last one to get autonomous cars! Have you see the way people drive here?»

Tata Elxsi: Ultimately, there s a company with the courage to test driverless cars on Indian roads

Eventually, there’s a company with the courage to test driverless cars on Indian roads

Share

It`s one thing attempting to build driverless cars, and entirely another to make them work in Indian conditions.

With unruly pedestrians, disorderly drivers, reckless autorickshaws, a multitude of slow-moving carts, darting dogs, and the occasional elephant, Indian roads are indeed something else. But there`s one company that evidently has the audacity to test driverless cars in India.

Tata Elxsi, a design rigid part of the Tata group, is presently seeking permission from authorities in Bengaluru to road test an autonomous car, the Business Standard newspaper (paywall) has reported. Unlike some autonomous car companies, Tata Elxsi isn`t building a driverless car from scrape. Instead, it has repurposed two sedans, including one manufactured by Tata Motors, and rigged them up with a range of sensors and cameras. The kitted out cars are already being given a runaround at a facility on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

Quartz has reached out to Tata Elxsi for more details on the project, and will update this post if and when we hear back.

Tata Elxsi has been working on autonomous technology for some time now. In 2014, for example, a group of engineers from the company modified a Tata Motors Zest sedan and tested it on a pre-determined route. «We knew the car`s electronics architecture (inwards out). We made it autonomous and took it to Pune, and demonstrated it to Tata Motors,» Tata Elxsi`s managing director, Madhukar Dev, told Fortune magazine last year. «About one hundred technical staff took a rail in it along a programmed path.» In 2015, the company also demonstrated the autonomous valet parking technology developed by it at the CES, the world`s largest consumer technology trade display.

The objective is to build an autonomous car framework that combines cameras, sensors, and communications inbetween vehicles and infrastructure, which could then be suggested to the automotive industry. «What we`re developing will be useful in many ways for OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and suppliers of parts,» Tata Elxsi`s head of marketing Nitin Pai told Business Standard.

But there have been persistent doubts over the feasibility of autonomous cars on Indian roads. Last year, Steffen Berns, president and managing director of engineering and electronics rock hard Bosch India, politely explained that the autonomous cars will take some time to come to the subcontinent «because the traffic situation is a bit different here.»

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick was somewhat more direct: «India will be the last one to get autonomous cars! Have you see the way people drive here?»